Path of Dragons

Book 3: Chapter 59: Vermin

Elijah shifted into his draconid form and attempted to adopt Guise of the Unseen. However, when he tried, the ability refused to cooperate. That told him two things. First, he was not alone. And second, they were watching him.

Flaring One with Nature, he tried to find his hidden observers, but even though the cavernous crack in the wall was only a dozen or so inches across, his ability couldn’t touch the sides. Apparently, it had scaled right alongside his decreased size. In some ways, he felt no different than he usually did. The effects of his attributes had kept pace with his shrunken size.

“Guess I won’t go full Mighty Mouse,” he mused.

Shaking his head, he quickly moved. He had no idea how long the tunnel – or crack in the wall – really was, and he was on a timer. After all, the half hour duration of the locket’s effect had already begun to tick down. So, he couldn’t afford to waste any further time. With that in mind, he pushed forward, shifting into his lamellar ape form after a few steps.

If he couldn’t use Guise of the Unseen, then he would take advantage of his guardian form’s much higher defenses.

For the first few hundred subjective feet, Elijah encountered no issues. He could feel something watching every step he took, though. He didn’t know what form his watchers might take, but his mind went wild with possibilities. Without wasting any time, Elijah was capable of fairly rapid movement, and with his unseen watchers following his every movement, he pushed himself into a loping jog that covered ground quickly.

It wasn’t enough, though.

The moment he increased his pace, a sickly-sweet smell filled the entire area. And, at last, he looked up and caught sight of his would-be foes.

Elijah recognized them immediately, and he was not happy about what he saw. Long, with huge, bulbous heads equipped with enormous mandibles, the termites were more than five times his small size. Analytically, he knew that meant they were abnormally large – even considering his shrunken stature – but he chalked it up to the effects of magic. After all, he was still in a tower populated by vampires and ghouls. Encountering slightly larger termites shouldn’t have been a surprise.

At first, they didn’t attack. Instead, they just hung upside down from the ceiling, looking down on him. He sped up, knowing what that smell was. Termite soldiers like the ones on the ceiling used pheromones to alert their colony of intruders. Normally, that meant going to war with ants, but Elijah supposed that he was sufficiently ant-like for the termites to treat him as an enemy.

After only a couple of seconds, one of the termites reared back, then shot something viscous and shiny from the center of its bulbous head. Elijah was so surprised that he didn’t try to dodge until it was too late. The substance hit him in the shoulder a moment later, knocking him sideways. More disturbingly, when he tried to lift the attached limb, he found that the goo was sticky, pinning his arm to his side.

A moment later, he saw hundreds of other termite soldiers copy the first, and a second after that, the air was full of those globs of sticky stuff. Elijah pushed himself to go even faster, ripping his arm from his side along the way. It took almost all of his considerable Strength to do so, but he managed it.

Barely.

If he let even a dozen of those globs hit him, he wouldn’t be able to move. Then, he’d be a sitting duck for the termites. Elijah pushed himself to his top speed, which, considering his Strength, was impressive. He had no way of gauging it, but if he was going slower than seventy miles-per-hour – subjectively, of course – he would have been incredibly surprised.

Even so, the termites almost got him. More than anything, he wished he could simply fight them on even ground. However, they refused to come down from their perches, and though he could probably reach them if he leaped, that strategy would probably get him hit by more goo. So, he’d chosen to run.

After all, termites were territorial. Generally speaking, they wouldn’t leave the vicinity of their colony. So, he just needed to outrun them – which was easier said than done.

Elijah dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the latest volley, then continued to spring through the cave-like crack in the wall. His Sash of the Whirlwind stood him in good stead, the Haste effect giving him just enough time to react. But each volley was a close call.

Until, at last, he managed to tumble free of the tunnel. He kept going for a few hundred more yards before he dared to look back. The termites were still there, angrily glaring at him from the opening. But they hadn’t pursued him any further. He sighed, resuming his human form. Once he had, he used a combination of Healing Rain and his soap to scrub the goo free.

He was so engrossed in the task that he never even saw his next foe’s approach until it entered the range of One with Nature. When it did, he wheeled around to see an absolutely enormous rat staring back at him. Or perhaps it was a normal-sized rodent, and it just seemed large compared it his current size.

But it was also no normal rat. Huge chunks of its flesh were missing, exposing bits of bone. Most of the fur on its left side was gone, and one of its eyes hung from the socket on a fleshy string. By all accounts, there was no way the thing should have been ambulatory, given its decrepit condition. And judging by the smell coming from it, its insides were no better than the features Elijah could see.

Yet, on it came, and moving with an alacrity that belied its state of clear decay.

Elijah reacted quickly, casting Snaring Roots, then, for the first time ever, using Nature’s Rebuke. The creature stumbled as thorny vines erupted from the floor, cracking tiles as they snaked around the rat’s legs. When Nature’s Rebuke landed, it reared back, letting loose an unholy screech that sent a chill up Elijah’s spine.

He followed that up with Swarm. Then Calamity. Finally, he used Storm’s Fury, and even as a thousand tiny mites manifested, the world erupted into chaos comprised of vicious wind blades, rumbling earth, and lightning. The largest bolt came from Storm’s Fury, hitting the rat directly in the forehead.

Stolen novel; please report.

But the rat paid no attention to any of that chaos. Instead, it continued to screech, twitching and shaking from the effects of Nature’s Rebuke. Clearly, it was no natural creature, and that meant the spell was triply effective. More, it was just as obviously painful.

As Elijah watched the rat, listening to its agonized screams, he couldn’t help but feel slightly guilty. However, that only lasted until he truly focused on it via One with Nature. Upon brushing that facet of his mind, he recoiled. Anger welled inside of him, and he added another Storm’s Fury to mix.

Then another.

It was only because the monster finally died that he backed away, panting. At first, he had no idea what had come over him, but it only took a bit of inward focus to recognize that it originated with his archetype.

Druids were the stewards of nature, and commitment to that endeavor came with a slightly adjusted mindset. Before Earth had been touched by the World Tree, Elijah had been closer to nature than most. Indeed, growing up, he’d spent more time outdoors than under a roof, and when he’d decided to pursue his degree in biology, focusing on marine life, he’d spent countless hours out on the open ocean.

But back then, he’d never felt nearly as close to nature as he did after attaining his archetype. And that connection had only grown stronger in the time since. That was helped along by his constant use of One with Nature, which served to give him insight into everything around him. Most of the time, that was a good thing.

Yet, when he focused on the rat, his mind reeled the sheer unnaturalness of its body, of its very being. And the abomination of it made him angry. To a lesser extent, he’d felt something similar with the ghouls, but for one reason or another, the situation was far worse with the rat. Probably because it had once been a normal creature, whereas the ghouls and the Creator’s other minions had been manufactured.

Either way, he wanted nothing more than to banish the rat’s corpse.

A skittering sound coming from nearby told Elijah that he was the only one who felt that way. He whipped around to see a dozen monstrous cockroaches bearing down on him. Upon laying eyes on his latest attackers, Elijah saw that the word cockroach was a bit of a misnomer. They were that, sure, but they seemed like they had some ant in them, too. Whatever the case, the hybrid was horrifying, huge, and clearly intent on killing him.

But they were natural creatures, which was something of a relief. Still, he took the time to use Nature’s Rebuke on each one. They let out a collective roar when the curse landed, but they didn’t start twitching uncontrollably like the rat had. Elijah took a moment to use Brand of the Stalker on the largest one, too. It was at least twice the size of the rest, so he figured it was the strongest of the bunch.

Then, he shifted into his draconid form. It was just in time, too, because the ant-roaches reached him only a second later. Elijah leaped over the first low-slung monster, and he nearly got a mandible to the stomach for his trouble. The monster reacted quickly, only missing by inches.

Elijah landed, then lashed out with his claws, embracing Venom Strike a second before his claws raked across the ant-roach’s natural armor. But he didn’t stop. Without the protection of Guise of the Unseen, Shape of the Predator was extremely vulnerable. However, it could also put out quite a lot of damage, especially against heavily armored monsters like the ant-roaches – largely because he could bypass their chitinous exoskeleton by administering his various afflictions.

Because Venom Strike, Nature’s Rebuke, and Contagion didn’t care about armor. Once the enemy was infected, Elijah just needed to wait for them to go to work.

With that in mind, he dashed from one ant-roach to the next, using his high Dexterity and respectable Strength to help him avoid any retaliatory strikes. And it worked – for a while. But because he was walking a tight rope between success and disaster, it was inevitable that he would eventually slip up and make a mistake. There were just too many variables and unpredictable factors for it to be otherwise.

So, he wasn’t really surprised when one of the ants suddenly reversed its course, pivoting on three of its six legs, then taking a chunk out of his vulnerable side. Elijah stumbled – only for a second – but that was enough for the rest of the monsters to pile on. In moments, he was buried beneath a small mountain of chitin, skittering legs, and biting mouthparts he couldn’t really identify.

When he saw the writing on the wall, Elijah initiated a shift to his lamellar ape form, but the nature of the transformation meant that it took a couple of seconds to complete. And in that time, the ant-roaches ripped him to pieces.

So, when he finally took on the Shape of the Guardian, he did so with a momentous roar. He thrust himself upright, throwing a couple of the insects free. Then, he lashed out, battering the monstrous creatures with a series of hard strikes. Yet, even as he cracked their chitin, the monsters kept coming.

Then, Elijah caught wind of a second wave that was even larger than the last.

He grabbed one of the insects, hooking his claws under a pair of ridges in its exoskeleton, then ripped it apart in a shower of orange meat and fluid. But as he let out a massive roar, he knew it was a pyrrhic victory.

Because behind the second wave was a third.

Hundreds of monsters were coming his way, and there was nothing he could do to survive it. He pushed away, intending to run, but by that point, so many of the monsters had latched onto his legs that he knew he wouldn’t be able to outpace the newcomers.

Nor could he switch out of the lamellar ape form, because without Iron Scales blunting the monsters’ bites, he’d probably start losing limbs.

He ripped another monster away, slamming it into a third. Chitin cracked, and he ripped the legs from still another. Then, the second wave hit, and he was buried beneath a pile of insects.

He didn’t stop fighting, though. He wouldn’t. But in a couple of facets of his mind, he knew he was doomed.

Then, suddenly, the effect associated with the locket ended, and he rapidly grew into his normal size. The ant-roaches did not, though, and after a brief period of surprise, Elijah brushed them from his scales and viciously stomped them all to death.

Still, even after they were all dead, he couldn’t forget that he’d very nearly been killed by a bunch of insects. Clearly, he should have taken his chances with the vampires. He had underestimated the dangers, and because of that, his journey had almost ended.

So, after shifting back to his human form, Elijah took a few minutes to heal. As he did so, he took the break as an opportunity to calm his nerves. Then, he finally looked around. The crack – which looked so tiny from his current perspective – had terminated in a small sitting room. It was richly decorated, with velvet covered furniture and décor of dark wood.

But more importantly, Elijah had gotten a notification upon exiting the crack.

Congratluations! You have completed Level Two of The Magister’s Estate. Grade: C To progress further, complete your Task.

At first, despite his close brush with death, he thought it was a curiously easy level. Yet, in retrospect, he thought he might have bypassed some difficult challenges. After all, there was a chance that others might not have found the vampire’s diary. Or the locket. And even if they had, the effect only affected one person. So, it was possible for him to take advantage of the shortcut, but if he’d have had the elves with him, it would have been useless.

Unfortunately, the locket had dissipated into motes of ethera the moment he’d returned to normal size, so he wouldn’t be able to take it with him.

Regardless, a C-Grade wasn’t ideal. He just hoped it wouldn’t affect his reward too much. After looking around and failing to see his reward, he decided to move on. There was only one exit and Elijah suspected that going through it would net him his reward. So, with determination, he strode forward, opened the door, and stepped through.